Bad Sportsmanship

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This season my team played an away game against a team that we clobbered 27-4 earlier in the season. We endured a lot of heckling from the opposing team at that home game from both the players and the coaches. It bothered me that an opposing coach would teach his girls that this was the way to play the game. When we played them at their field I expected the worse since we were told we might as well not show up. Needless to say, in the 5th inning we were up 10-2 with them batting. We had again endured heckling only now the spectators got involved. They do not like us at all. I called my girls and the umpire to the mound and forfeited the game and we left. The league granted us the victory so we kept a perfect record. Did I do the right thing? All of the parents thanked me for removing their girls from that situation but I am not sure what lesson I tought my players other than honoring the way the game should be played. Has anyone else had to deal with a similar situation? We will most likely play this team in the year end tournament next week and I am not looking forward to it.

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I so sympathize with you! We had one team that did the same to us, and totally threw a monkey wrench into our game. I noticed that my girls were so focused on retalliating, that they completely lost their focus, (and almost lost the game. ) Instead of turning their bodies toward home plate, they had their shoulders squarely facing the opposing dugout. The other team did what they set out to do, they rattled us! In the 5th inning I called a quick team rally/pep talk. I looked each and every girl squarely in the eye and told them that they were better than this, and no to give in to the taunts. They pulled together , refocused and won, but only by 2 runs. Our league has a no cheer policy at the minor league level (my level). We can ONLY cheer for our own team and NEVER against the other team. Violation of this is subject to forfietting the game. the Coach from the other team was not at that meeting and thus claimed he had no knowledge of the violation..............Bull! Always try to maintain high standards for your girls......they will remember this and not a bad game.....we are mentors...........

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I really must admitt the lack of sportsmanship at the youth level has been steadily declining to a disgusting level recently. This year at my daughters basketball games we had parents yelling at thier children during the game, yelling at the refs and coaches, and even heckling the girls on the court. F or example we had a game go into triple overtime which in our league results in a shootout, while a girl from the other team took her final shot a man from the crowd yelled miss while everyone else was quiet and the girl missed the shot. Talk about poor upbringing these girls are 8-10yr olds for crying out loud. Then after not winning a game in the first half the season our team ended up in the semi-finals. However I was very upset to see MANY parents in the stands heckling the players on the court and the refs who I thought should have done something just ignored them,the problem with that I thought is young girls don't know how to ignore them yet. We ended up losing the game and after the game I called the director of the league an dasked him to do something about and to that he replied It's just part of the game to which I replied "your full of sh*t if you think that is part of any game". I guess he took my objection seriously because this saeson I have been asked to implement a code of conduct for parents and coaches which will have to be signed before any child is eligible to play.I have also been asked to start a committee of coaches and league officials to review any violations that may occur during games.Finally I have given the refs strict intsruction to remove any disruptive spectators from the gym, and we will be holding the parents directly responsible for any diruptive behavior from peaople they bring to the games with them and repeat offenders will be banned for the entire season.Fortunately our little league already has a comittee in place so those things don't happen and it really works.Parents aren't allowed to even approach us during games or the umpires to contest any calls or playing time they have to put it in writing to the comittee or they could be brought in front of the comittee themselves.Perhaps your league should look into having such a comittee as well. In little league it has worked beautifully and hopefully we will have the same effect in our basketball league this upcoming season Just keep in mind eventually all athletes will encounter heckling to some degree as sad as it is it happens try to talk to them during practices about ignoring anything they may hear from the stand good or bad and focus on you and your coaches only.that is probably the hardest thing to teach even at college levels. GOOD LUCK and worse case scenario buy them some ear plugs ha ha just kidding.

I put up with with crap until Ifinally got on the Association and League Board of Directors. We made specific rules, in writing, eliminating all those things designed to distract another team. I got that damn singing in softball thrown out and you would not believe how many parents came up to me to thank me! I think the right thing was done, discussion, then if there was no solution, pull your kids off the field. But I think everyone here is missing something. It is up to the umpire to control the game! Where is he when all this is going on and why is he permitting it? The League needs to instruct the umpires not to let games get out of hand and to protect the kids from taunts, whether they came from the other team or the other team's parents. In short, put specific rules in, and have the umpires enforce them. If you show them the rules in writing they have no choice but to enforce them. My advice is to start there. The next step would be to remove those coaches that promote such behavior. Catch it on film if possible. Good luck.

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Isn't it sad what some parents and coaches are teaching their kids about how to play together. There's no excuse for it. If the coach is part of this or not controlling his team, he should be removed. That type of behaviour isn't even tolerated at the higher levels of play.

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But I think everyone here is missing something. It is up to the umpire to control the game! Where is he when all this is going on and why is he permitting it? The League needs to instruct the umpires not to let games get out of hand and to protect the kids from taunts, whether they came from the other team or the other team's parents.

I umpire high school (NFHS), ASA, and Little League softball, and also officiate high school volleyball. In neither of those sports is it the responsibility of the game officials to control crowd behavior. For high school sports, that responsibility falls on the site administration (for other sports as well as softball and volleyball), and for ASA or Little League the responsibility rests with the League Adminstration. The umpires are in control of what happens within the confines of the fences during a softball game, but we are not and should not be responsible for what happens outside the fences. When I was strictly doing Little League baseball (coaching and umpiring), there was always a board member who was designated "Duty Officer" who kept their eyes and ears open for any potential problems. As a tournament director during the Little League tournament season, I was the one responsible for maintaining crowd control, not the umpires.

We umpires have to listen to enough garbage coming from just within the fences without having to worry about what Joe Schmo is yelling from the stands. We are (rightfully) instructed to not pay attention to what anyone in the stands is saying...which is why I will never hear a parent scream at me that their little Junior was safe at first on a play where the ball beat him there by half a step